Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My name is Mandy Rosko, I write in all sorts of romantic genres in a couple of different pen names, and in total, for this name, I’ve written about 17 books or so. 18 if you count the Wattpad story I’m posting now, with a couple more and a few short stories in the works as well 🙂
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My book is Sold To The Enemy, and I think I was just in the mood for angst. I love me some angsty stories where one character did something really bad and needs forgiveness by the other character.
I think the thing that influenced this a lot was after I read Slaves of Love by Opal Carew. That was another book set in the far future that required big time forgiveness after a terrible deed, set in a world that would be a space pirate’s dream of taking women and property. I love that stuff, and to this day, it’s still my favorite of her books, though I have yet to read them all 😉
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Yes and no. I write a lot, but usually under a different pen name. My bad habit is that I don’t tend to keep track of how many hours per day I write. I tend to want to shoot for 5 to 7 thousand words. If I can’t get that many words done in a day, I feel like I wasted the day, but that’s after I super procrastinated by watching Youtube videos or playing games. My Goodreads challenge could be in better shape as well …
What authors, or books have influenced you?
That’s a hard one to answer actually!
Hmm, I think a lot of my influence has actually come from reading and writing fanfiction. Anything goes in fanfiction. People wrote what they wanted, no matter how gruesome it was, and they never had to worry about what a publisher or editor would say to change it or tone it down. A lot of good stories came from that, as well as a lot of super angsty ones that would probably never get published. Also, in fanfiction, you were able to interact with the author a lot easier, or respond to readers more frequently since they commented on every chapter, instead of just after every book. I think that’s what helped me learn to be a writer, was being in that world, discovering what I liked, what I was comfortable writing, and learning how to interact with people on the Internet.
What are you working on now?
Currently I’m working on several things at once. I’m trying to finish up As Cold As Ice, the third book in my Dangerous Creatures series. I’m also working on a Christmas story for a box set that will be out in November, so I need to hurry with that one. I recently finished another short story for a Monster Box set which will also be out in October, and then a book for a series with other authors that will be out at roughly the same time.
To top it all off, I’m also working on my first Billionaire romance contemporary, The Arrangement, Bad Boy Billionaire Brothers Book One, and I’ve been posting it on Wattpad as the chapters get finished. I think it’s my love for the fanfiction writing that’s drawing me back to this form of writing. I want the feedback, and to know what people think since this will be my first Billionaire story. So far people seem to really like it, so I also put it up for pre-order 🙂 Here’s the link if you want to check it out: https://www.wattpad.com/myworks
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m actually really terrible at promoting my own stuff. I’m kind of a hermit. I’d rather just write and read and play games, but I know that’s not how this works. Thankfully, I’ve now got people helping me with the promotion bits, which if how I got to be writing this interview :3
Do you have any advice for new authors?
There are two pieces of advice here, and they’re going to be something you’ve all heard before, but read as much as you can, and not just in the genre you write in. I know it sucks to hear the same advice all the time, but this is one of the few bits of universal advice that really does apply to everyone in the writing field. Everything else is pretty much subjective.
If you don’t have time to read, get some audiobooks and listen to them on the commute to work or while you’re at the gym. When you watch television and movies, analyze their stories, what they did right, and how they really grabbed your attention.
The only other thing I can think of is to not let your inner editor get in the way of your writing. This is another bit of advice that a lot of people hear, but again, this is gold, especially if you’re one of those writers who has to put it down, had to perfect it, has to make it shine before you can go on to the next sentence.
Don’t do that. Unless you’ve trained yourself to be able to do that while still finishing your 70,000 word book in less than 6 weeks, cut it out. I hear it too many times where people edit the crap out of their books and then put it down when they get bored just to move on to something else. I will promise you right now that my shitty, garbage, completed first draft manuscript will always be about a thousand times better than your unfinished for 5 years masterpiece.
You want to know why? Because it’s finished. It *exists.* If your book is incomplete then it doesn’t exist. That’s it. When my crappy manuscript exists in full, then I am leaps and bounds ahead of you because I am already at the rewriting stage whereas you’re still in the writing stage struggling to get to The End. Then I’m onto the editing stage, and so on and so forth. Then I can release it. You can’t do that.
So, seriously, unless you have trained yourself to be the sort of writer who actually can edit as you go, then don’t do it. If you need to ask yourself if you’re one of those people, count how many unfinished manuscripts you have in your drawer or hard drive. If the answer is more than one and they are all a year old or more, then you know you are one of these writers who editing on the spot does not work for.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
See Above.
What are you reading now?
Right now I’m reading a number of different things. I’ve got a couple of books that I promised to read for review, so they need to come soon, and I’m finishing up an erotic book right now to give myself some inspiration for my Bad Boy Billionaire romance. I’m also going through a novel on my 3DS, these seem to be getting popular. It’s basically a choose your adventure romance sort of thing, and I’ve got a lot of guys with swords to choose from 🙂
Also, Armada by Earnest Cline came in the mail today, and I listened to Ready Player One on audio, so I can’t wait to read this 😀
What’s next for you as a writer?
Not sure. Still trying to get through this year. My goal was to read more and write more, and so far on on track, even though it still feels like I’m constantly behind. Thank God I’ve got some help now to see me through this whole marketing thing. Makes me want to be sick from even thinking about figuring all this stuff out myself.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Haha! Suckers, you didn’t mention anthologies 😀 They’d all be big, thick anthologies of completed series I have yet to red, and this is assuming I’m stranded on an island *after* I’ve read Armada. But a quick example sitting on my desk would be Jill Kismet, the complete series by Lilith Saint Crow. This is a big ass book at 1390 pages. It’s got like five books inside of it, so that should tide me over nicely while I wait for rescue 🙂 I’m not even entirely sure what it’s about, other than it looks cool and was in the Fantasy section of the bookstore. As for the other two or three anthologies, I’m not sure. One of them would definitely be a space opera romance, the other would have to be a paranormal M/M series, and the third…maybe that would just be an empty journal (a thick one) So I could write and entertain myself while waiting for rescue.
Anyway, yeah, anthologies or omnibus’s, whatever you want to call them. I’d totally be bringing those to my island
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